Synchronet v3.19b-Win32 (install) has been released (Jan-2022).

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Synchronet Node Display/Control Utility

The Synchronet NODE utility can be used to display or control the status of Terminal Server (Telnet, RLogin, or SSH) nodes from the system shell prompt or via batch/script file.

Running

Note: Before the NODE utility can be used to monitor or control any Synchronet BBS nodes, the SBBSCTRL environment variable must be set to point to your Synchronet ctrl directory (so the node.dab file can be located, opened, and read or modified).

Usage

usage: node [-debug] [-loop] [-pause] [action [on|off]] [node numbers] [...]

Actions

Action Description
list list status (the default)
anon anonymous user
lock locked
intr interrupt
down shut-down
rerun rerun
event run event
nopage page disable
noalerts activity alerts disable
status=# set status value (definition of status values later)
useron=# set useron number
action=# set action value (definition of action values later)
errors=# set error counter
conn=# set connection value
misc=# set misc value
aux=# set aux value
extaux=# set extended aux value

Tutorial

To run the NODE utility, you must type the word “node”, an action (ex: “LOCK”), then a list of nodes to take the action on (ex: “1 2 4 5”). If no node numbers are specified, it is assumed you wanted to perform the action on ALL nodes.

Some actions can have an option “ON” or “OFF” state specified. Typing “NODE LOCK 1” would toggle the “locked” state of node 1. If it were previously off, it would be set to on. To be sure you are setting the state to either on or off rather than toggling, you may specify on or off (e.g. “node lock on 1” would set the locked state of node 1 to on).

Some actions are setting a value for the node status. These actions are listed with “=#” after the action word. This indicates that you must specify a numeric value for that status option (e.g. “node useron=1 5” would set the current user number on node 5 to 1).

The optional “-debug” switch can be used to view the current numeric values associated with the node status.

Example Usage

Example #1: To list the status of all your nodes, type:

node list

Example #2: To lock node 1, type:

node lock on 1

Example #3: To unlock nodes 1 and 2, type:

node lock off 1 2

Example #4: To set the status of node 3 to “Offline”, type:

node status=5 3

Example #5: To interrupt and lock node 4, type:

node intr on 4 lock on 4

Example #6: To clear the error counter of all nodes, type:

node errors=0

Example #7: To toggle the “rerun” status of all nodes, type:

node rerun

Example #8: To down node 2, type:

node down on 2

Possible Node Status Values

Value Description
0 Waiting for connection
1 At logon prompt
2 New user applying for access
3 User online
4 User online in quiet mode
5 Offline
6 Networking
7 Waiting for all nodes to become inactive before running timed event
8 Running timed event
9 Waiting for timed event node to finish running event

Possible Node Action Values

Value Description
0 Main Prompt
1 Reading Messages
2 Reading Mail
3 Sending Mail
4 Reading G-Files
5 Reading Sent Mail
6 Posting Message
7 Auto-message
8 Running External Program (aux=program number)
9 Main Defaults Section
10 Transfer Prompt
11 Downloading File (aux=estimated time of transfer completion)
12 Uploading File
13 Bi-directional Transfer (aux=estimated time of transfer completion)
14 Listing Files
15 Logging on
16 In Local Chat with Sysop
17 In Multi-Chat with Other Nodes
18 In Local Chat with Guru
19 In Chat Section
20 Sysop Activity
21 Transferring QWK packet
22 In Private Chat (aux=node chatting with)
23 Paging another node for Private Chat (aux=node being paged)
24 Retrieving file from a sequential device (aux=device num)

Bits Used in Node Misc

Value Description
0 Anonymous User
1 Locked for sysops only
2 Interrupted - hang up
3 Message is waiting for user
4 Paging disabled
5 Activity Alert disabled
6 User data has been updated by another node
7 Re-run this node when logoff
8 Must run node event after logoff
9 Down this node after logoff
10 Reset private chat
11 Message is waiting for node

Unix Monitoring Example

# watch /sbbs/exec/node list
  
Every 2.0s: /sbbs/exec/node list


Synchronet Node Display/Control Utility v1.22

Node  1: At logon prompt
Node  2: Waiting for connection
Node  3: Waiting for connection
Node  4: Waiting for connection
Node  5: Waiting for connection
Node  6: Waiting for connection
Node  7: Waiting for connection
Node  8: Waiting for connection
Node  9: Waiting for connection
Node 10: Waiting for connection

Limitations

Since the node utility doesn't read any configuration or data files (other than the node.dab file), it doesn't know user names (it just display user numbers) or external program names.

See Also